A tiny arachnid crawling across New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's desk met a quick demise last week when the Republican gave the crawler a smack. Christie's daughter happened to be touring the governor's office with her fourth grade class.
Later, he tweeted video of the incident, with the message, "Earlier today I saved a few school children from a spider."

But even the seemingly innocent spider kill caught the eye of animal rights activists. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wrote in a statement that Christie "probably did it without thinking."

"Some people put the spider outside, but spiders are often scary to people, and that can prevent them from pondering their worth," the group continues.

soundoff(57 Responses)

Pretty sure it was somewhat tongue-in-cheek. They made fun of Obama swatting at a fly while on camera at one point too.

May 6, 2013 01:50 pm at 1:50 pm |

Dutch/Bad Newz, VA -aka- Take Back The House -aka- No Redemption Votes

Oh give me a break. These animal rights groups kill me. First they gave the President flack for killing a fly(which I thought was pretty awesome), now they're on Christie's back. What's the difference if they would have used Raid?

May 6, 2013 01:54 pm at 1:54 pm |

Bill

A REAL Republican would have pulled out his AR-15 and put that sucker DOWN!

May 6, 2013 02:06 pm at 2:06 pm |

ST

I heard from News Networks few months ago, that spiders killed a lot of people in India. How could Christie could have known that it was not poisonous?

A REAL Republican would have pulled out his AR-15 and put that sucker DOWN!
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I blame the fourth graders for not having some assault weapons. Don't they know that they have the right to bear arms?

A Bill or a Spider. It does not matter what a republican kills. It's okay!

Just like it's ok that they killed thousands of Men and Women looking for so-called WMD's.

May 6, 2013 02:11 pm at 2:11 pm |

Dominican mama 4 Obama

They say it is bad luck to kill a spider....bad luck for the spider as far as I'm concerned.

May 6, 2013 02:19 pm at 2:19 pm |

Peace

Is Christie not a good man with a gun? If he doesn't possess any, that crazy man of NRA should provide him one.

May 6, 2013 02:30 pm at 2:30 pm |

John

Give me a break. I once got yelled at for smacking away a dragonfly that landed on me.

May 6, 2013 02:31 pm at 2:31 pm |

YeahRight

Did he eat it after he killed it?

Seriously, this was a senseless murder, but then that is what the GOP is good at – senseless murder – pushing for more guns, more violence, and who obviously don't think twice about killing God's creatures.

May 6, 2013 02:35 pm at 2:35 pm |

Styrofoam

PETA has no "paws" to stand on after the Huffpost piece categorizing their slaughter of thousands of healthy and adoptable pets. The cat is literally out of the bag.

May 6, 2013 02:38 pm at 2:38 pm |

Tony

Spider-Man would have made short work of Christie. Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever Christie can't....

May 6, 2013 02:44 pm at 2:44 pm |

hecep

PETA is right. Next time I see a brown recluse spider, I'll just give it a big hubby bear squeeze and a kiss prior to limo'ing it out into the wilderness. Come here, you little hemotoxic-bearing aracnid, you!

May 6, 2013 02:47 pm at 2:47 pm |

Peoples State of Illinois

If spiders are outside it is "live and let live." If a spider is inside the house, I make it a "good" spider, i.e. dead one.

Too bad he didn't smack PETA instead of the spider. Somebody needs to give them a good spanking.

May 6, 2013 03:25 pm at 3:25 pm |

bellarue

Killng a spider, seriously? This is the definition of "slow day in the news".

May 6, 2013 03:30 pm at 3:30 pm |

EdwardTr

Ok this weird, Obama kills a fly, Christie kills a spider that kills flies. Is there a hidden war going on. Are spiders on the liberal side are flies conservatives? We need a congressional hearing to get to the boron of things.

May 6, 2013 03:30 pm at 3:30 pm |

longtooth

Breaking News! A guy killed a bug. There will be a nationwide candle-light vigil tonight, and all are invited to attend.

May 6, 2013 03:38 pm at 3:38 pm |

WMesser58

I don't like Christi but I would have smashed the bug without hesitation.